Days in Huế – the Imperial City

 

Hue, the Imperial City

 
Truong Tien Bridge, which i learnt to walk towards each morning from the hostel. Here, different motorbike taxi uncles approached me everyday. With so many motorbike taxis around I wonder about the competition, really.

 

I love cycling / motorbiking through these gates! It’s a wonderful feeling, as through I’m soaring through history back into some sort of a past. It also strongly reminded me of Krakow, riding past these city gates.

 

 

 

Days are passing me by so quickly. Today I cycled to the citadel under the blazing sun, ever so merciless, and it was beautiful. I gulped down 2 sugarcanes and a coconut though, after emptying my water bottle in the first half hour. I find that I’m no longer scared to cycle on the roads, and crossing the busy streets isn’t really that scary anymore. The motorbikes kind of weave around you, you just have to be careful not to make abrupt movements- because that’s what I do when cycling as well, navigate around other bikes and people. In the chaos of the streets I find a certain structure, a rhythmic pattern. 

Here, I foolishly tried to drink my sugarcane while cycling, and was fiercely greeted by 3 scabs-to-be. That said, it was a quiet road though, near the citadel so that err on my part is pardonable. My bag dropped and my camera’s spoilt now. Makes me sad but I guess at least it’s happened near the end of my journey. Still, Hue is a beautiful city 🙂

Met Thao and Bai in the evening, where they brought me to this beautiful mountain top to catch the sunset. So, so beautiful! After that we went to some dimly-lit street to eat dinner. As she rode the motorbike in the dark along the train tracks. I briefly considered if she was going to bring me to some deserted area. Nothing of that sort happened of course. But I feel like as I grow older I’m going to be more suspicious of people and strangers, but students in themselves hold a certain naïveté that I trust.

They treated me to the meal, and I treated them to ice cream. Such sweet company! 

 

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